Is there a cotton picking law for peasants, asks HWA

Farmers’ body decries physical, sexual, economic exploitation of workers in cotton fields

KARACHI:

The Hari Welfare Association (HWA), a province-wide representative body of peasant, has questioned absence of legal protection of cotton pickers against rampant physical and sexual abuse of labourers in the cotton fields.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the HWA said that all labour and child rights laws should be implemented primarily for women and men. Workers in the cotton sector should be unionised and registered under the Sindh Agriculture Workers Act of 2019 and the Sindh Industrial Relations Act 2013. The Sindh government should also constitute and activate district vigilance committees to prevent debt bondage in all areas of the agriculture sector.

The association representing haris or the landless peasants expressed ire over the provincial government's negligence and ignorance of economic and physical abuse of workers engaged in cotton cultivation in Sindh.

"These exploitative practices could lead to disruption in the cotton supply chain from Sindh which produces 35 per cent of the lint," HWA President Akram Khaskheli said.

Millions of peasants and workers are engaged in cotton picking in the province. Except in Kamber Shahdadkot, Jacobabad, and Kashmore, cotton is cultivated in all districts, including the Karachi division. The major cotton growing districts include Khairpur, Ghotki, Sukkur, Benazirabad, Nausheroferoze, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Matiari, Badin, and Tando Allah Yar.

HWA regretted that labour and child rights laws including the Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Act, 2017; Sindh Child Protection Authority Act, 2011; Sindh Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 2015; Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2013; and Sindh Industrial Relations Act, 2013, are not implemented to ensure the rights of workers in the cotton production.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2021.